Car stories keep popping up in anecdotes people tell about the early days when the Aurora Branch met in the Odd Fellows Hall. And with good reason! That block of South LaSalle Street was “an early automobile commercial center in Aurora” and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
When you take a close look at the buildings that flank the Odd Fellows Hall, you see that they were originally designed as automobile dealerships. 
Coats Garage, Odd Fellows Hall, Berthold-Hanson Cadillac Dealership, Theiss’ Central Garage, Finch and McCullouch block (printing and book binding)
Also amazing to note—this block of LaSalle Street, between Benton and Fox, was once on the original Lincoln Highway route through Aurora. No wonder they were selling cars there. 
This map is from a reprint of A Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway, Fifth Edition, 1924, page 319.
Nowadays car dealerships consist of a showroom, offices, and service garage, surrounded by a massive parking lot with rows and rows of new and used cars. Not so in the early 1900s. Quoting the brochure “Aurora, An Architectural Portrait,” p. 43: “Automobile sales and service buildings developed as a distinctive building type in the early 1900s. They were designed to blend in with other commercial buildings and were generally located on the fringes of the central business districts.”
Immediately north (left) of the Odd Fellows Hall is the Coats Garage.
Coats Garage “was the first automobile sales and service building built in the LaSalle Street Auto Row Historic District specifically for this use. Constructed in 1907, it still features the original elevator that transports cars to the second and third floors for storage and servicing. Coat’s line of cars in 1912 [the year the Odd Fellows Hall was built] included Chalmers, E.M.F., Hudson, and Flanders. It was constructed with large “I” beams that span the width of the building, providing a large open space without columns for the display of automobiles. The current owner indicated that 30 modern cars can be stored on each floor.” This is probably the dealership where Fred Schleifer bought his Hudson Terraplane.
On the south side (right) of the Odd Fellows Hall, a Cadillac dealer occupied a one-story building. 
Recalling her experiences as a child in the early 1940s, my aunt Jane wrote in 1993: “Once in a while Jim and I would go out of the door at the back of the large kitchen and crawl over the metal fire escape and climb onto the roof of the building next to the Odd Fellows Hall. This building had skylight windows where we could look down onto the floor below. It was a Cadillac sales building—beautiful cars to see.” (The skylights are still there.)
Berthold-Hanson Cadillac was an enduring business. Here is their advertisement from the 1964 Aurora City Directory.
Continuing south we come to the Theiss’ Central Garage Building. 
This off-center photo does not do justice to the pleasing symmetry of the matching, two-story bay windows. Again quoting the architectural tour brochure: “Another automobile sales and service building, the Theiss building was constructed around 1912 in the Commercial Style. It also has the original elevator; however, unlike the Coats Garaged, this building utilized the new technique of fire-proof reinforced concrete slabs for the floors. A 1912 advertisement indicated that the Buick Maxwell, Apperson and Baker Electric cars were sold at the Central Garage.”
Completing the block was the Finch & McCullouch building, erected in 1907. At the time it was one of the most complete printers and binderies in Illinois, and the company remained at that location for more than 70 years. The other side of the block is also interesting for its fine examples of Victorian era commercial buildings. That side of the street was used as the set for the movie, The Express: The Ernie Davis Story. Davis was the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy. LaSalle Street was used to represent his hometown in Pennsylvania. (We rented the movie hoping to catch a glimpse of the Odd Fellows Hall, but only the opposite side of the street was shown. All was not lost, however, because it’s a really good movie.)
Monday, July 27, 2009
Odd Fellows Hall, Part 5: Auto Row
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Odd Fellows Hall, Part 4: Car Buying on S. LaSalle
A phone call from my uncle Jim Greer started me on a surprising journey through Odd Fellows Hall history.
He told me a story about Fred Schleifer who used to bring his wife Alodia to church in the late 1930s. Since Fred was not a member of the Aurora Branch, he was more interested in the car dealers on South LaSalle Street than in church meetings. Jimmy recalls that one Sunday Fred bought a Hudson Terraplane.
We don’t know when Fred Schleifer bought his new car, but we can guess. The Aurora Branch moved to the Odd Fellows Hall sometime in 1935, and Terraplanes were manufactured only from 1934 to 1936. As for which model he bought, Uncle Jim recalls the car’s “suicide doors,” that is, doors that open from the front, like those shown on the above Terraplane advertisement. This model is a 1935 Terraplane Deluxe coach that sold for $645 and weighed 2665 pounds. According to ads, “all Terraplanes used a 212-cid straight six that put out 88 bhp and could accelerate from 0 to 50 mph in 14.05 seconds.”
Possibly a better candidate for Fred’s car is this 1936 Terraplane Custom touring sedan This car weighed 2,875 pounds and cost $740.
Fred needed a good car because he had to drive to work from his home in Kaneville to Montgomery, Illinois, a roundtrip of 30 miles. He worked at Lyon Metal with James T. Greer, and it was because of that connection that he met his second wife, Alodia Howard, which took him to LaSalle Street and the car dealerships.
Jim Greer’s first job at Lyon Metal was making shipping crates. A look at the 1930 census shows Fred Schleifer doing exactly the same thing. Obviously they struck up a friendship because Jim Greer never met a stranger. Fred was 48 years old, to Jim’s 34. He was born in Pennsylvania and he had a wife and three children living at home. Sometime in the next five years his wife passed away.
Meanwhile, Alodia Howard moved to Illinois from southeastern Idaho after her husband was killed in a mine explosion. He had belonged to the Moose Fraternity, and so his widow and three children (Lynn, Wallace, and Georgia) were eligible to live at Mooseheart, the “Child City,” a few miles north of Aurora along Route 25. From the Mooseheart website, we learn that it is “a home for children and teens in need, from infancy through high school. Dedicated in July 1913 by the Moose fraternal organization, MOOSEHEART cares for youth whose families are unable, for a wide variety of reasons, to care for them. Some have lost one or both parents; others are living in environments that are simply not conducive to healthy growth and development.” Alodia Howard found employment at Mooseheart and the children lived in the cottages.
It wasn’t long before James T. Greer decided to introduce Fred and Alodia to each other, and the rest is history.
As I said at the beginning, the story of the Terraplane started me on a journey that uncovered some unusual facts about South LaSalle Street and the automobile businesses that grew up next to the Odd Fellows Hall. Keep checking back. There’s more to this story.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Who Are the Odd Fellows Anyway?
A couple of people recently told me they’d never heard of the “Odd Fellows.” They wanted to know who or what they were. Here's what I found out:
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F) is a fraternal organization, similar to the Elks or Moose. It was organized in England in the late 1700s and began in America in 1819. They got their name because at that time “it was deemed odd to find people organized for the purpose of giving aid to those in need without recognition and pursuing projects for the benefits of all mankind.” (from I.O.O.F. webpage)
Lodges also provided lodge members with a social community that would help in times of need. This support was especially important because, in those days, there were no governmental safety nets and very little insurance of any kind.
The worldwide emblem of the Odd Fellows is a three-link chain with the letters that stand for friendship, love, and truth and symbolizes the fraternity of the members.
I am familiar with this chain because it was emblazoned on a banner that hung in the large room on the second floor where the Aurora Branch met. I don't remember much else about this gold-fringed banner, except that the all-seeing eye of God was embroidered above the chain and seemed to be watching all our proceedings.
The group that built the Odd Fellows Hall on South LaSalle Street in 1912 was organized on January 3, 1849, “by virtue of a dispensation granted by the grand master of the grand lodge of Illinois.” One of the officers who conducted the ceremony to institute the Wabonsie Lodge 45 was E.L. Howard of the St. Charles lodge “who walked from St. Charles to Aurora thru 14 inches of snow to attend, there being no trains running between the two towns because of the heavy snow.”
The Wabonsie Lodge 45 united with the Ben Hur Lodge 870, the Aurora Encampment, and the Minnehahah Rebekah Lodge 77 and Tirzah Rebekah lodge 488 (“Rebekahs” are the affiliated women’s organizations) to build the hall. These names are familiar to me because they were listed on a wooden plaque in the club room on the south side of the second floor, the one that held the pool table, poker table, leather sofa and chairs, and in the 1950s, a television set.
As also reported in the centennial edition of the Aurora Beacon News, September 5, 1937, the Odd Fellows were true to their fraternal duties: “the Odd Fellow fraternity maintains two homes in Illinois, the I.O.O.F. Old Folks home at Mattoon where there are about 200 aged Odd Fellows and Rebekahs, also the I.O.O. F. orphans home at Lincoln, with about the same number of orphans of members of the order. Each of these places is a small community in itself with its own school, hospital, chapel, gymnasium, laundry, power plant and farm produce.”
Although I’ve known about the Odd Fellows all my life, I was surprised to learn that the organization is still alive and well. Check out their webpage.
Here’s an excerpt:
“We are the family of Oddfellowship, composed of Men, Women, and Youth, believing in a supreme being, the creator and preserver of the universe, who have come together in our local communities having the same beliefs and values as others, that; Friendship, Love and Truth are the basic guidelines that we need to follow in our daily lives. Through working in our local Communities, States, Provinces, or Nationally we understand that we can make a difference in the lives of people in our World….
“Our deep history began in North America, with the United States and Canada in 1819, and is continually expanding throughout the World where we are a worldwide fraternity in 26 countries. The Odd Fellows and Rebekahs are striving to make the world a better place in which to live, seeking To Improve and Elevate the Character of Mankind.
“The members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows are sometimes referred to "Odd Fellows" or "Rebekahs." Odd Fellows have also become known in many areas as "The Three Link Fraternity" which is evidenced by our world wide "Three Link Emblem" which stands for Friendship, Love and Truth. These three links symbolize the chain that binds our members together and illustrates that our Communities, States, Provinces and Nations are strongest when joined together.”
As it turns out, small branches of the LDS church often met in Odd Fellows Halls in the early to mid 20th century. Perhaps odd fellows and peculiar people just naturally go together.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Paper Treasures: Records of the Past
This week I have spent quite a bit of time delving through a treasure trove of Aurora Branch memorabilia—a provocative and random assortment of handwritten minutes, old Church record forms, and branch newsletters. (My mother sent me the papers several years ago, and I believe she obtained them in 1982 when the family cleaned my grandparents’ house after my grandmother died.) Now that the documents are organized, I plan to mine them for insights into the workings of the branch and share the findings with all of you. 
The assortment includes six receipts for rental of the Odd Fellows Hall in 1937 (April, May, July, October, November, and December), all carefully held together with a straight pin.
The collection includes several copies of newsletters and branch bulletins. This “Aurora News” might be the first issue because it asks readers to suggest a name. 
No suggestions were forthcoming, however, even with the promise of a prize. It remained the “Aurora News” through at least 1952. In 1957 it became the “Aurora Branch News” and was printed on blue paper. All this time Louise Erekson was the editor, reporter, and typist. She duplicated the newsletters on a mimeograph machine my parents owned.
Aurora enjoyed its share of awards as this Official Citation attests.
If you have branch directories or other historical documents relating to the Aurora Branch, please let me know. I would like to obtain photocopies or scans. I would use them to flesh out the history of the branch, and with your permission, I would like to share them online. I’m especially interested in obtaining a copy of Yours and Mine, the Aurora Branch Cookbook published in 1952. You can contact me by email at gingerhamer@yahoo.com.
By the way, I officially subscribe to my grandmother’s motto: Don’t throw anything away!
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Odd Fellows Hall, Part 2: Potluck Dinners
A potluck dinner on Fast Sunday and a rare look at the inside of the Odd Fellows Hall, ca. 1950-51. This is the back of the second floor meeting room, looking away from the windows and toward short, angled hallway that led to the kitchen. The closed door at the back led to a storeroom where tables and extra chairs were kept. The wooden chairs you see here were used for meetings and moved to the table for the meal. I had forgotten the coat hooks along the high wainscoting. Note the ceiling fans with metal blades. One time a missionary greeted the 4-year-old Robert Johnson (who came with John and Mable Wendt, perhaps a nephew) by picking him up and tossing him into the air. Unfortunately, he tossed the boy right into a fan. Robert was rushed to the hospital with severe cuts, but no permanent damage. Jimmy Greer recalls, “We almost didn’t have church that day.”
Seated around the table, clockwise from the front corner of the table: Myrtle Greer, Jimmy Greer, James T. Greer (branch president), Mary Jane Greer, unidentified adult, unidentified child, John Resch, Rosalee Resch.
Continuing on the other side of the table: Fred Woolcott, Mike Woolcott, Eleanore Woolcott, Don Tatton, [son] Tatton, Betty Tatton, [son] Tatton, Iris Dombrow, Ray Dombrow, Louise Greer Erekson, Tommy Erekson, boy with back to camera (probably Jimmy Resch). Bob Erekson took the picture.
In the excerpt below, I recall an Aurora Branch potluck dinner:
Sunday School at 10:00 and Sacrament meeting at 6:30 meant that friends could come over to play all afternoon. Later when the popular television show Disneyland began airing at 6 p.m., it was a weekly trial of our faith to leave it and head back to church.
On the first Sunday of each month the schedule varied because of Fast Sunday. On this day people were supposed to abstain from food and drink for 24 hours, but most people just skipped breakfast. Sunday School was shortened and fast and testimony meeting began immediately afterwards. After the song and prayer and the partaking of the sacrament, the time was turned over to the congregation for anyone and everyone to “bear their testimony” or stand and express thanks for blessings that month and witness that they knew the Church was true. Young and old stood up one after another. This kind of sharing built community more than anything else, unless it was the dinner that followed each month. Throughout old Brother August Kramer’s lengthy testimony in broken English, the smells of a church dinner wafted in from the kitchen in the back. Casseroles and pies warmed in the ovens during the meeting so that as soon as the last amen sounded, the brethren could set up the tables and move the chairs over for the Fast Day feast. Grandma Greer had baked mountains of rolls; Aunt Rosalie had brought her famous noodle-beef hot dish. Summers meant big platters of Grandpa Greer’s steaming sweet corn and plates of garden-fresh sliced tomatoes, green peppers, and cucumbers.
Fast Sundays also meant no evening meeting. We could stay home and watch Disneyland at our leisure, and be like the rest of the world for one hour.
(from a paper I wrote in 1995 for a creative nonfiction class at the University of Minnesota.)
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
The Odd Fellows Hall, Part 1
For almost twenty years, the Aurora Branch was practically synonymous with the Odd Fellows Hall. You couldn’t think of one without the other. The following excerpt about meeting in the Odd Fellows Hall is taken from a paper I wrote for a creative non-fiction class at the University of Minnesota in 1995:
“Our small congregation met in the same Odd Fellows Hall from the late 1930s through 1959, or almost the entire 28 years my grandfather served as branch president. For many of those early years when my mother was growing up, the Aurora Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had more words in its official name than members in the congregation, but when my memories begin we had about 40 regulars.
“The lodge hall occupied the second and third floors of a commercial building at 62 South LaSalle Street, one block east of Broadway in Aurora, Illinois. Wedged between the Schorr Glass Company and the Lindsay Water Softeners store, its double-door entrance was flanked by pretentious square pillars, whose indentations regularly enticed boys—but never girls—to climb up them when they should have known better than to rough house on Sundays. The second story meeting rooms were reached by a staircase that looked tall enough to lead all the way to heaven right then and there, but it lacked the glory of Jacob’s ladder. Poorly lit and dingy, the steep stairs proved to be a weekly trial for older folks who needed to rest on the landing halfway up and sometimes resorted to pulling themselves hand over hand along the railing before they reached the top.
“As people gathered at 10 a.m. for Sunday School and again at 6:30 p.m. for sacrament meeting, the high ceilings and bare wooden floors in the long, narrow room on the left of the stairs echoed with friendly greetings and the sound of children’s feet. Directly across from the door hung a large American flag, and next to it a banner for the I.O.O.F embroidered with a linked chain and other symbols, including appropriately enough, an enormous peering eye of God.
“Every Sunday morning Brother John Wendt, a counselor in the branch presidency who happened to be the janitor for the Odd Fellows, came early and cleaned away the remains of Saturday night’s lodge revelry and neatly arranged wooden chairs in careful rows facing the windows to the west. In the late afternoon meetings, the sun glared in our eyes. Summers, it roasted us. If we opened the windows for ventilation, the sounds of the street and the tavern across the street drifted into the meeting. And every Sunday, exactly on schedule, the California Zephyr, that famous passenger train from Chicago to Denver and parts west, roared by, rattling the windows and drowning out the speaker.”
More to come. (Photo courtesy of the Aurora Historical Society)
